Malidoma Somé: The Forgotten Art of Drowning

Key wellness, self-care, and productivity strategies (from the discussion)

Reframe prayer and practice

• Practice prayer as honoring and connection (not “begging”).
• Use prayer for:
  • self-reaffirmation
  • loved ones
  • the world
• View “kneeling” or discomfort as something to grow beyond—aim for dignity and steadiness.

Self-caretaking = strengthening interconnectedness

• Treat “stranger in a strange world” as relative: everyone is part of the same human/relational home.
• Build wellness by repeatedly remembering kinship (“brothers and sisters everywhere”).

Use ritual to cleanse what’s stuck to you

• Prepare for a cleansing water ritual by asking:
  • “What do I carry that isn’t mine?”
  • “What unwanted energies have fused to my life?”
• Approach cleansing as spiritual purification (wash away layers/negatives) so you can feel “lighter.”

Stand in purpose when adversity arrives

• Expect that growth in purpose can trigger resistance.
• Guiding principle:
  • When you’re aligned with purpose, “all hell breaks loose” may follow.
• Respond by standing tall rather than running or hiding—adversity can be met with defiance.

Reinvent “welcoming” as a recurring self-care act

• The speaker links early and ongoing “welcome” to life quality and orientation.
• Wellness involves:
  • recreating a genuine sense of being seen
  • using ritual to create the feeling of being reborn
• Water is proposed as the cleansing/recognition medium.

Honor the dead to heal the living

• Wellness includes giving attention to ancestors/loved ones who’ve died (not treating death as absent).
• “Call the ancestors into our midst” to strengthen connection and healing insight.

Gift-based purpose as a core health practice

• Indigenous philosophy presented as:
  • Everyone arrives with “suitcases” (gifts) meant for others, not just self.
• Illness can come from not delivering your gift.
• Practice both roles:
  • Giver: offering your gift
  • Receiver: actively helping “summon” the gift out of you (receivers matter too)

Create sacred space intentionally (ritual mechanics)

• The difference between “ordinary” and “sacred” is intention.
• Put into practice:
  • delineate a “sacred place” from the everyday
  • invite/allow the invisible presence to make gestures sacred
• Objects and actions can become transformative when infused with intention (a stone can “become” a mountain symbolically in the psyche).

Design your change intentionally (don’t leave it on autopilot)

• “Nature year” = change/transformation.
• Prioritize intentionally crafted change rather than random change.
• Principle:
  • If you don’t steer your change, change will happen to you.

Understand initiation as disciplined struggle—not permanent trouble-free life

• Trouble/pain/stress can be part of initiation, especially when held in a sacred context.
• Don’t expect trouble to disappear after initiation:
  • graduating from one challenge can lead to another.
• Goal: become better at organizing and responding to trouble (making yourself “bigger” than it).

Help each other practice—don’t wait for experts

• Emphasize collective support:
  • people can help each other remove what’s stuck to them
  • build discipline so initiation/cleansing becomes a repeatable blueprint
• Avoid credit-seeking:
  • healing acts may have distant or untraceable effects; don’t delay by requiring reward.

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Proposed ritual focus (water ritual) — what it’s meant to accomplish

• Welcoming component so participants feel seen and “reborn”
• Cleansing/purification to wash away unwanted energies and attachments
• Connection to the living world (water/trees/life force) and the invisible
• Aftercare mindset: expect change; keep preparing beforehand so the ritual can land deeply

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Presenters / sources

• Malidoma Somé (speaker)